SEMO students held a Free Palestine Rally

Cape Girardeau, MO. (KBSI) – College campuses across the nation are taking part in making their voices heard over the war in Gaza.

 Southeast Missouri State University joined in, in a free Palestine Rally. 

Their rally was to raise awareness of the war in Gaza. Students came together and chanted things like “Gaza Gaza you will rise Palestine will never die!”

Students said they were raising their voices in support of Palestine.

Dozens of campuses across the US are joining in to make their voices heard as the war in Gaza continues. Catelyn Roberts is the president of a national student activist organization called Students for a Democratic Society. She helped lead today’s protest. 

“We fully believe that this is a genocide going on since at least the 40s and this is a topic that is incredibly important to all of us here.” 

23,000 plus arrests have been made on 44 different campuses across the US since April 17 due to chaos from the Rallys.

Although Southeast Missouri State University joined in to raise awareness the rally was peaceful, and no altercations or arrests were made.  

“It’s so important to have these protests and these rally’s here to show that it is truly an international cause and it’s not just an issue that’s affecting big cities. It is impacting absolutely everybody” says Roberts.

According to reports from Gaza’s health ministry over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and that number continues to increase.

Leslie Washington is a community gun violence leader and a student at Semo. She says the war in Gaza is an issue that everyone should know about.  

“70 percent of fatalities are women children and the elderly, so I think it’s important to show what genocide looks like. This is the flyer that they’re passing out and this is the ways that you can help by contacting your legislatures and making them aware as to what’s going on and that it has to stop and that we have to hold people accountable for their actions.”